The latest game changer in diabetes research might not be a new drug or a therapy. Instead, it could be a system of human blood vessels virtually identical to the ones currently transporting blood throughout your body.
What makes these blood vessels special is that they are the first ones grown in a lab — and they’ve already generated a new lead in diabetes treatment.
Continue reading… “We can now grow perfect human blood vessels in a lab”
New research has shown that if a man wants to live a long healthy life, marrying a smart woman will go a long way in fulfilling this desire. Besides increasing longevity, having an intelligent wife can negate the chances of a man catching dementia. The right partner will definitely help enrich a person’s life.
However, intelligence is not the only criteria for a happy relationship. Compatibility is another key factor. Just like the old adage says ‘do not judge a book by its cover,’ so too a person’s outward appearance should not be the yardstick for the selection of a partner. Younger people are generally attracted to the physical aspects of a person and sometimes fail to look beyond that. This often results in bad relationships or marriages in the later years. Choosing mind over matter can, therefore, have great benefits for both.
Continue reading… “New research says men who marry intelligent women live longer”
A new algorithm significantly outperformed human clinicians in predicting which patients would go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
A powerful new deep learning algorithm has been developed that can study PET scan images and effectively detect the onset of Alzheimer’s disease up to six years earlier than current diagnostic methods.
The research is part of a new wave of work using machine learning technology to identify subtle patterns in complex medical imaging data that human clinicians are unable to pick up. Continue reading… “Deep learning algorithm detects Alzheimer’s up to six years before doctors”
If you want to be as healthy as possible, there are no treadmills or weight machines required. Don’t just take my word for it—look to the longest-lived people in the world for proof.
People in the world’s Blue Zones—the places around the world with the highest life expectancy—don’t pump iron, run marathons or join gyms.
Instead, they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without even thinking about it. This means that they grow gardens, walk throughout the day, and minimize mechanical conveniences for house and yard work.
In fact, Blue Zones researchers determined that routine natural movement is one of the most impactful ways to increase your life span, and a common habit among the world’s longest-lived populations.
Continue reading… “The healthiest people in the world don’t go to the gym”
Two new studies now suggest that a noninvasive eye scan could soon be used to catch Alzheimer’s disease early.
A simple eye scan may soon detect Alzheimer’s in a matter of seconds.
The world’s population is aging rapidly and the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease is on the rise.
For this reason, the need for efficient dementia screening methods that can be applied to millions of people is dire.
Continue reading… “Eye scan may detect Alzheimer’s disease in seconds”
Scientists at the University of Texas have implicated a type of cellular stress for the first time as a player in Alzheimer’s disease. And their discovery could lead to treatments for more than 20 human brain diseases including Alzheimer’s and traumatic brain injury. One author of the study went as far as to say the treatment that researchers used on mice to rid them of the stressed cells actually stopped Alzheimer’s disease “in its tracks.”
Researchers at the The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, now called UT Health San Antonio® established a link between tau tangles and the stressed or senescent cells they found in Alzheimer’s-diseased tissue. Senescence is the process by which cells irreversibly stop dividing or growing without actually dying. Already proven to be involved in cancer and aging, tau protein accumulation is known to exist in 20 human brain diseases. “Tau protein accumulation is the most common pathology among degenerative brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), traumatic brain injury (TBI) and over twenty others,” the research paper notes.
Continue reading… “Senolytic therapies seem to stop Alzheimer’s disease ‘in its tracks’”
It sounds more like science fiction than real world science, but researchers at Stanford University announced the first results of a novel study in which they infused blood from young donors into a small number of people with mild to moderate forms of Alzheimer’s disease in the hopes of improving the disease’s symptoms.
Continue reading… “Young people’s blood could help treat Alzheimer’s”
If age really is just a number, what number marks old age? Well, the answer to that depends on how old you are now.
Millennials hold the least generous views on aging, saying that you are old beginning at just 59, according to a new study by U.S. Trust. Older groups, however, put the starting point further out.
Continue reading… “At what age do you become ‘old?’ Here’s what four different generations think”
Brain surgery is precision business, and one slip can spell doom for affected patients. Even in one of the most skilled jobs in the world, human error can still be a factor.
Researchers from the University of Utah are looking to provide less opportunity for those errors to occur. A robot that the team is developing is able to reduce the time it takes to complete a complicated procedure by 50 times.
Continue reading… “Robot completes 2-hour brain surgery in just 2.5 minutes”
There’s a revolution happening in biology, and its name is CRISPR.
CRISPR (pronounced “crisper”) is a powerful technique for editing DNA. It has received an enormous amount of attention in the scientific and popular press, largely based on the promise of what this powerful gene editing technology will someday do.
Continue reading… “We’re beginning to see the medical revolution CRISPR had promised”
Social Security is a program that forms the financial foundation for a majority of our nation’s retired workers, and that’s not expected to change anytime soon. We’re really dependent on Social Security income, and that could be a problem
Data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) shows that 61% of all current retired workers receiving benefits count on Social Security to provide at least half of their monthly income.
Alzheimer’s disease is devastating both for those who suffer from it and for those who love them. It is also expensive. It’s estimated that the current worldwide cost of coping with Alzheimer’s is $818 billion. A cure for Alzheimer’s is not available and current treatments for the disease focus on mitigating symptoms rather than eliminating causes.
Continue reading… “Researchers Create A Gene Therapy Treatment That May Prevent Alzheimer’s”